22.1 From Source to Completion

I am the A and the Z, the source and the completion, says the Lord God, the One who is existing [I am] and who has existed and who is continuously and actively coming, the One who holds all, the One who sustains and carries all, the All-Carrying One (Revelation 1:8).

Typically, the phrase is translated “the beginning and the end,” as time words that cannot be referencing God. The first, archo, can be a time word, but even then, it still retains the sense of “source.” Yet in many cases it means only source, as the “beginning” of a stream of water. The second word, telo, means something drawn out to its completed state. It does not mean time, and it means “perfected” only in the sense of “as intended,” not perfect as outward superiority.

Personal, Dynamic, and Right Now. When this phrase is translated, “I am the Source and the Completion,” then it means what God is. As Paul said in Romans 11 – For coming out from Him and passing through Him and returning to Him are all things – the Source and the Completion. This nature of God as Source and as Completion is immediate, personal, dynamic, and all right now.

It does us no good, however, to consider God as the Source and the Completion of rocks. Humans are His intention, and you in particular. God is on the backside of you and you are coming out from Him every moment, every breath, and every step. God is on the front side of you and you are going into God just as much.

Coming out from God. But you can’t come out from God on the backside of you to immediately enter into God on the frontside of you, without passing THROUGH God who dwells inside of you in all of His fulness. This line, from John and from Paul, is your immediate and always life. You have never existed in any other state.

When I recently wrote that our next day, our next step, is exthesis, Word never before spoken by Jesus, but in full agreement with all Word already spoken, the lights turned on brighter in my own conscious awareness. And I feel more turned around than ever, that I am coming immediately out from God my Father into my world.

Our Completion and God’s. This quality of completion, then, goes in two directions at the same time. We can talk about these two directions separately, yet they are never separate, but are always together. The first direction is that God is our completion, and the second direction is that we are God’s completion.

God is our completion, and we are God’s completion.

The purpose of this chapter is to search for a slight outline of understanding towards this beyond-all statement. And the only place to begin is at the beginning. Creating man, male and female in one body, was God’s crowning achievement, the finishing of all His works. Yet God had one more act of wonder, and that was to draw Eve out from Adam’s side and bring her to him.

The Church Is the Glory of God. God rested (completion) only after He had brought Eve to Adam, thus signifying that the completion of God is not Jesus, but the Church. The Church is the glory of God, just as Eve was the glory of Adam.

Just as Eve was inside of Adam and part of his own body, before God drew her out to set her as one of his same kind, that Adam might never be alone again – so the Church was inside of Jesus and part of His own body, before God drew her out to set her as His same kind, that Jesus might never be alone again. It was not possible for Adam to bring forth life inside heaven-earth apart from Eve. It is not possible for God to bring forth His life inside of creation apart from the Church.

A New Man for a New Age. However, Eve was not the end, for only through Adam’s union with her could new life come forth out from her womb. That new life – supposed to be Cain, but God always chooses the second-born, and thus it was Abel, with Seth taking his place. – For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel. Seth was the completion of Adam, fully of him and fully of Eve.

And thus it is not the Church as the Bride who is the completion of God, but the Church as the ruling of sons, birthed fully out from God and out from the Church. That makes Revelation 12:5 to be the completion of God, a new man for a new age.

Love that Rules. And she brought forth a male, a son, who is about to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron, and her child was seized into God and into His throne. From Source – Christ lives inside of my heart through faith – to Completion – seized into God and into His throne.

Love expressed as ruling authority inside of creation, then, is the completion of God. This is not “love one another,” which is the Church as God-made-visible. This is the Love that rules all things with a rod of iron. This is a costly Love, for it comes only through broken earthen vessels. And broken does not mean “shattered,” it means utterly one with the Father’s Heart.

To Rule as Love. The completion of the human, as God designed us, is to rule as Love over all created things. The completion of God inside of creation is to rule as Love over all created things – through humans. Thus the rule of Love is the completion of both inside of one.

And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given to them. – And the sanctuary of God inside of heaven was opened and the Ark of His Covenant was seen inside of His sanctuary [the place of His dwelling] (Revelation 20:4 & 11:19). Out from this completion, the Ark of our Covenant with God and the Mercy Seat upon which we sit, will fill all creation.

From “Learn” to “Feed.” How does this rule of Love complete the human? And how does this rule of Love complete God? First, the Source and the Completion are never separated, for the Completion is already full inside the Source and the Source is always the cause of the Completion in every moment.

Just how much, then, are we defined as humans by “Christ lives inside of my heart through faith?” Indeed, we know that being “filled with all the fullness of Love” dwells in and comes out from that Source. Here is another way of saying the same thing, from Source to Completion. – “Learn of Me.” – “Feed My sheep.” From Word to Love.

Love Is Costly. We have no idea of the meaning and extent of who and what we are as humans, our design, our fabric, our makeup, our foolish and stumbling steps, our soaring ambition, our crashing collapses, how ALL of it MAKES US the Rule of Love. Love is costly. Love is the beating of many hammers upon God’s Heart and upon our hearts until they are beaten together into the shape of MERCY. Have you wept? Then you are just like the Lord Jesus. Have you laughed? Then you are just like the Lord Jesus.

Yet we don’t “dance” into such a Rule, for those who Love are those who are taught of the Father out from Word, out from Spirit, and out from the crush of a shared life with God.

You Are My Glory. I have never been more excited than in writing “Studies in John,” for I am being taught of the Father out from Word and Spirit. And everything I go through in my mundane human life is for the pressing of that Spirit Word, that I might know the Father.

Yet that is not my completion, for my completion is found in “Feed My Sheep.” And so, as I share this same Word with those willing few, I stretch forth myself to include them with me in all of my shared life with God, just as Jesus and Paul did. – Who, then, is my hope, or joy, or crown of boasting and exultation? Is it not even you, in the face of our Lord Jesus, inside of His presence? For you are my glory and my joy.

The Rest of God. How, then, could humans possibly be the completion of God?

A man rests only after his work is completed. At the end of the journey, a rider takes care of his horse before he considers his own needs. To rest is to say, “This is all that I intended, and I am fully pleased with what I have accomplished.” To rest is to say, “I have looked carefully over all things, that each is safe and fed.”

Yet there is an even greater rest, the rest of a father, when his son steps in to take the rule of house and business upon his own shoulders. We will seek to understand more of how humans are the Rest of God in Lesson 22.2 “The Rest of God.”

The Name of God. How, then, could humans possibly be the completion of God?

When an artist completes a painting or an author a book, they place their name upon their work as saying, “This is mine. This that I have formed represents me and everything I am.” There is nothing superficial about God’s name. For Him to write His name upon us is much more than saying, “This one is Mine, he or she belongs to Me.” It is saying, “I have taken all that I am in my essence, and I have expressed Myself as Me through the fabric and person of this one human being.”

We will seek to understand more of how humans are the Name of God in Lesson 22.3 “The Name of God.”

The Appearance of God. How, then, could humans possibly be the completion of God?

Humans are made of a fusion of dirt and spirit breath utterly together as one body. Even our souls are found at the juncture between dirt and spirit breath. This fusion of dirt and spirit breath together said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” When God shows up inside His creation, He appears as a man, and then He humbles Himself. When I see your face and know that I am seeing the Father, then God will no longer be invisible.

We will seek to understand more of how humans are the Appearance of God in Lesson 22.4 “The Appearance of God.”